Apparatus for refrigeration

ABSTRACT

A refrigerator including a blowing unit optimized for a bottom type condenser. The refrigerator includes a main body having a storage compartment defined therein, a condenser mounted at the bottom of the main body, and a blowing unit to blow air that has already passed through the condenser. The blowing unit includes a centrifugal fan mounted in a machine compartment and a blowing guide member to guide air blown by the centrifugal fan to the front of the main body. Consequently, it is possible to discharge the air that has already passed through the bottom type condenser, to the front of the main body, thereby accomplishing the smooth discharge of air and reducing the power consumption necessary to blow the air.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No.2007-34423, filed on Apr. 6, 2007 in the Korean Intellectual PropertyOffice, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and, more particularly,to a refrigerator including a blowing unit optimized for a bottom typecondenser.

2. Description of the Related Art

A refrigerator is a machine that generates cool air using the movementof heat due to the phase change of refrigerant and supplies the cool airto a storage compartment, in which various kinds of food are stored,through a specific channel to maintain the freshness of the food for along time. A refrigerator generally includes a compressor to compress arefrigerant, a condenser to condense the compressed refrigerant, anexpansion device to expand the condensed refrigerant and an evaporatorto evaporate the expanded refrigerant to cool a storage compartment.

The compressor and the condenser must be cooled using external air. Forthis reason, the compressor and the condenser are mounted in a machinecompartment partitioned from the storage compartment. In the machinecompartment are also mounted a blowing unit, i.e., a blowing fan, toblow air necessary to cool the compressor and the condenser.

The blowing fan mounted in the machine compartment is an axial flow fan.The axial flow fan is mounted in the machine compartment inconsideration of the direction of air flow occurring at the rear of amain body of the refrigerator, where no large resistance is applied tothe axial flow fan, which is developed in consideration of the flowdirection.

In the refrigerator with the above-stated construction, the air, blownthrough the axial flow fan, is discharged through a discharge portformed at the rear of the main body. However, when air is blown throughthe axial flow fan, then discharged to the rear of the main body, thedischarge of the air may be impeded.

The difficulty of efficient air discharge is especially present for abuilt-in type refrigerator. The main body of such refrigerators, aremounted in the wall of a building further impeding the smooth dischargeof air to the rear of the main body.

Furthermore, an increase in power consumption of the blowing unitresults from the impedance of smooth discharge of air.

SUMMARY

Additional aspects and/or advantages will be set forth in part in thedescription which follows and, in part, will be apparent from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

Therefore, it is an aspect of the invention to provide a refrigeratorthat is capable of smoothly discharging air using a blowing unit.

It is another aspect of the invention to provide a refrigerator that iscapable of reducing the power consumption through the smooth dischargeof air by the blowing unit.

In accordance with one embodiment, the present invention provides arefrigerator including a main body having a storage compartment definedtherein, a condenser mounted at the bottom of the main body, and ablowing unit to blow air having passed the condenser, wherein theblowing unit includes a centrifugal fan and a blowing guide member toguide air blown by the centrifugal fan.

In an embodiment, the blowing guide member includes a fan casingsurrounding the centrifugal fan and a guide duct to guide air introducedthrough the fan casing.

In an embodiment, the fan casing has a suction port, through which airblown by the centrifugal fan is suctioned.

In an embodiment, the guide duct communicates with the fan casing toguide the air suctioned through the suction port.

In an embodiment, the guide duct has a discharge port, through which theair, suctioned through the suction port and guided, is discharged, andthe discharge port is directed to the front of the main body.

In an embodiment, the main body is provided at the bottom thereof withan air discharge channel having one end communicating with the dischargeport of the guide duct to discharge the air, guided along the guide ductand discharged, to the front of the main body.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forthin part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obviousfrom the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent and more readily appreciated from the following description ofthe embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, ofwhich:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view schematically illustrating a refrigeratoraccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the refrigerator shown in FIG.1; and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the presentinvention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elementsthroughout. The embodiments are described below to explain the presentinvention by referring to the figures.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating a refrigerator according to anembodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an explodedperspective view of the refrigerator.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the refrigerator according to an embodimentof the present invention includes a main body 10 having a storagecompartment 12, which is divided into a refrigerating compartment and afreezing compartment by a middle partition (not shown), defined therein.To the front of the storage compartment 12 are mounted doors to open andclose the refrigerating compartment and the freezing compartment.

To the inside rear wall of the storage compartment 12 is mounted anevaporator 16 to generate cool air. Above the evaporator 16 is mounted acool air circulation fan 18 to blow internal air in the storagecompartment 12 such that the internal air is circulated through theevaporator 16. The evaporator 16 is disposed in a cool air generatingcompartment 20 defined inside the storage compartment 12.

Below the cool air generating compartment 20 is formed a cool air inletport 22, through which the internal air in the storage compartment 12,i.e., the cool air, is introduced into the cooling air generatingcompartment 20 such that the air passes through the evaporator 16. Belowthe evaporator 16 is formed a cool air outlet port 24, through which thecool air, having passed through the evaporator 16, is discharged intothe storage compartment 12 by the cool air circulation fan 18.

At the front side of the bottom of the main body 10 is mounted acondenser 42 to change a high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerantgas into a low-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant liquid. Thecondenser 42 is a bottom type condenser mounted in a built-in typerefrigerator to increase the capacity of the storage compartment 12.That is, the condenser 42 according to an embodiment of the presentinvention includes superior space efficiency as compared to aconventional condenser, thus increasing the capacity of therefrigerator.

At the rear side of the bottom of the main body 10 is defined a machinecompartment 30. Access panel 23 may be affixed to main body 10. Accesspanel 23 can be removed and later reaffixed to main body 10 to allowaccess to machine compartment 30 for servicing. In the machinecompartment 30 are mounted a compressor 32 to change a gaseousrefrigerant into a high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant gasand a blowing unit 34 to blow air having passed through the condenser 42and the compressor 32.

As shown in FIG. 3, the blowing unit 34 includes a blowing fan 35 and ablowing guide member 36 to guide air blown by the blowing fan.

The blowing fan suctions air into the machine compartment 30, during theoperation of the blowing fan, to cool the condenser 42 and thecompressor 32. According to an embodiment of the present invention, theblowing fan is not a conventional axial flow fan but a multi-bladecentrifugal fan 35. At one side of the centrifugal fan 35 is mounted amotor 35 a to drive the centrifugal fan 35.

The blowing guide member 36 includes a cylindrical fan casing 37surrounding the centrifugal fan 35 and a guide duct 38 communicatingwith the fan casing 37 to guide air introduced through the fan casing37.

At one side of the fan casing 37 is formed a suction port 37 a, throughwhich air is suctioned during the rotation of the centrifugal fan 35.

The guide duct 38 communicates with the fan casing 37, as describedabove. During the rotation of the centrifugal fan 35, the guide duct 38guides the air suctioned through the suction port 37 a of the fan casing37 such that the air is discharged toward the front of the main body 10.To this end, a discharge port 38 a is formed at one side of the guideduct 38 such that the discharge port 38 a is directed to the front ofthe main body 10.

At the bottom of the main body 10 is also formed an air supply channel28 to guide the introduction of external air into the machinecompartment 30 and an air discharge channel 29 to guide the discharge ofthe air from the machine compartment 30. The air supply channel 28 andthe air discharge channel 29 extend in the forward-and-backwarddirection of the main body 10 such that the interior of the machinecompartment 30 communicates with the front side of the bottom of themain body 10. One end of the air discharge channel 29 communicates withthe discharge port 38 a of the guide duct 38, and the other end of theair discharge channel 29 communicates with a discharge port (not shown)formed at the lower front of the main body 10.

Hereinafter, the air circulating operation of the refrigerator accordingto an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

First, when the centrifugal fan 35 is rotated by the motor 35 a, airoutside the machine compartment is introduced into the machinecompartment 30 while the air is heat-exchanged with the bottom typecondenser 42. The air, introduced into the machine compartment 30, coolsthe compressor 32 by the continuous rotation of the centrifugal fan 35.

The air inside the machine compartment 30, having passed through thecondenser 42 and the compressor 32, is introduced into the fan casing37, surrounding the centrifugal fan 35, through the suction port 37 a bythe centrifugal fan 35. The air, introduced into the fan casing 37, isguided along the guide duct 38, and is then discharged through thedischarge port 38 a of the guide duct 38.

The air, discharged through the discharge port 38 a of the guide duct38, moved to the air discharge channel 29, in which the air isdischarged to the front of the main body 10.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, therefore, the air,having passed through the bottom type condenser 42 and the compressor32, is discharged to the front of the main body 10 by the blowing unit34, which includes the centrifugal fan 35 and the blowing guide member36 to guide the air blown by the centrifugal fan 35. Consequently, thesmooth discharge of air is accomplished. In addition, the powerconsumption of the blowing unit 34 is reduced through the discharge ofair to the front of the main body 10.

Furthermore, the air, having passed through the bottom type condenser 42and the compressor 32, is blown using the centrifugal fan 35.Consequently, efficiency is maintained through a relatively small flowresistance, as compared to that of the conventional axial flow fan.

As apparent from the above description, the refrigerator according to anembodiment of the present invention has the effect of discharging theair, having passed through the bottom type condenser and the compressor,to the front of the main body by the centrifugal fan and the blowingguide member, thereby accomplishing the smooth discharge of air.

Furthermore, the refrigerator according to an embodiment of the presentinvention has the effect of smoothly discharging air to the front of themain body, thereby reducing the power consumption necessary to dischargeair.

Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatchanges may be made in this embodiment without departing from theprinciples and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined inthe claims and their equivalents.

1. A refrigerator comprising: a main body having a storage compartmentdefined therein; a condenser mounted at the bottom of the main body; anda blowing unit to blow air having passed the condenser; wherein theblowing unit includes a centrifugal fan and a blowing guide member toguide air blown by the centrifugal fan.
 2. The refrigerator according toclaim 1, wherein the blowing guide member includes a fan casingsurrounding the centrifugal fan and a guide duct to guide air introducedthrough the fan casing.
 3. The refrigerator according to claim 2,wherein the fan casing has a suction port, through which the air blownby the centrifugal fan is suctioned.
 4. The refrigerator according toclaim 3, wherein the guide duct communicates with the fan casing toguide the air suctioned through the suction port.
 5. The refrigeratoraccording to claim 3, wherein: the guide duct has a discharge port,through which the air suctioned through the suction port and guided isdischarged, and the discharge port is directed to the front of the mainbody.
 6. The refrigerator according to claim 5, wherein the main body isprovided at the bottom thereof with an air discharge channel having oneend communicating with the discharge port of the guide duct to dischargethe air, guided along the guide duct and discharged, to the front of themain body.
 7. A refrigerator comprising: a main body including a storagecompartment; a condenser mounted at the bottom of the storagecompartment; and a blowing unit to blow air having passed the condenserout to the front of the main body.
 8. The refrigerator according toclaim 7, wherein the condenser is space efficient, thereby allowing thestorage compartment to have greater volume.
 9. The refrigeratoraccording to claim 7, wherein the blowing unit includes a centrifugalfan.
 10. The refrigerator according to claim 7, wherein the blowing unitincludes a blowing guide member comprising: a cylindrical fan casing;and a guide duct communicating with the cylindrical fan casing to guideair through the fan casing.
 11. The refrigerator according to claim 7,wherein the blowing unit blows air having passed the condenser out tothe front of the main body through an air discharge channel.
 12. Therefrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the blowing unit blows air ina direction towards the front of the main body through a discharge port.13. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the condenser isspace efficient, thereby allowing the storage compartment to havegreater volume.